Nokia Lumia 1020 Preview

Introduction:

Here, we, go! Nokia finally unveiled what we were all waiting for at its high throttle event in New York City, with a lot of pizzazz, style, and special effects of course – something that’s befitting of a smartphone that’s meant to be the company’s flagship for this year. Diving right into it, the Nokia Lumia 1020 faces a lot of stiff competition in the landscape, a growing stable of devices that’s constantly redefining the spectrum.

However, as they’ve clearly detailed at the beginning of its fancy event, we’re a society that’s bent on capturing every living experience through photos and videos. With that in mind, that’s exactly what the Nokia Lumia 1020 intends to excel in – thanks mainly to its mind-boggling 41-megapixel PureView camera, which carries along an insane arsenal of high-tech hardware and wizardry to essentially make it the most powerful camera to grace a smartphone. Most people probably wouldn’t fancy over its camera specs, but for those who are serious about it, they’ll be astounded by how much more comprehensive it is from its nearest competitor.

As much as there’s big hype around its camera taking prowess, it still needs to be riding on high gear in order to stand a chance in a market that’s dominated by the likes of the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S4, and HTC One. The harsher critics might view this as yet another do-or-die scenario, seeing that Nokia’s presence amidst the smartphone landscape is still filled with uncertainty.

Display:

You’d think that a new flagship device like this would be graced with a new display, one that would normally be associated with any successive device – like a bigger and higher resolution screen. Sadly, that’s not the case here, as the Lumia 1020 is sporting a display that is nearly the same as the one used by the Lumia 920 from last year. To be more specific, it’s a 4.5-inch 768 x 1280 (WXGA) PureMotion HD+ AMOLED, which on paper is almost identical to its elder sibling (save for it being an AMOLED panel this time). Certainly, we’re a little bummed by that revelation of course, especially when we’re talking about a device that’s trying to compete against others with 1080p resolution, but it’s nonetheless good enough for most things. Seeing that it’s based on AMOLED technology, you get that dark black color without any milky tones to it, and saturated colors that undoubtedly splash on that wow factor from afar. From what we notice, the screen’s clarity is maintained at all viewing angles too.

And just like before, it’s super sensitive too, so you’ll be able to interact with the display while having gloves on. Topping things, it’s soundly protected by Gorilla Glass 3, which should no doubt give it plenty of protection. As a whole, though, we feel that Nokia could’ve upped the ante somehow, but then again, there are still limitations seen with Windows Phone 8 when it comes to screen resolutions. It’s not Nokia’s fault, but rather, it’s an operating system limitation that’s preventing this one for making the jump up. Regardless of that, the display complements the handset’s striking design.



Design:

Whereas we were expecting something more with its display, we didn’t think that Nokia would stray from the design language of its previous Lumia devices. Frankly, we’re astounded the most to find that this beefy camera packing smartphone doesn’t blow up in size, because really, we were thinking it was going to go in the complete opposite direction by being a beastly thing – like the chunky PureView 808. Although it’s nowhere as insanely thin as other flagship devices, the 10.4mm thickness of the Lumia 1020 is indeed surprising.

Holding it, our hands are able to comfortably wrap around its unibody polycarbonate frame, seeing its sides are rounded and hug our hands perfectly. As always, the construction with this is fantastic too, as the combination between its sturdy feel and weight gives it an overall solid quality. Despite our admiration, the design could’ve been treated to something more too – like that aluminum frame found with the Lumia 925. Nevertheless, people will appreciate that this is going to be available in black, white, and yellow. The latter of the three colors, of course, is probably the most polarizing of the bunch, but it would’ve been better if it received the same color options as the Lumia 920.



Checking out every little inch of real estate on the handset, it’s packing all the same buttons and ports found with other Lumia smartphones. On the right edge, all of its physical buttons line up squarely together – and they’re all distinct to the touch and offer tactile responses. These include the power button, volume control, and two-level shutter key. As for the rest, it features a 3.5mm headset jack, noise-cancelling mic, microUSB port for charging/data connectivity, and SIM slot.

Flip it over to its back side, we’re greeted to the handset’s main attraction – its 41-megapixel PureView camera. True, a lot of its notoriety is probably attributed to the 808 PureView, but there are even more high-tech goodness packed into this camera. Specifically, it features a backside illuminated 1/1.2” sensor, 3x lossless zoom, six-element lens with ZEISS optics, LED & Xenon flashes, and a second-gen optical image stabilization suspension. Needless to say, it’s an extensive set for any smartphone, but we’re still curious to see how it fares – we’ll talk more about our initial impressions later. In order to have a camera of this caliber, the compromise is made in that it produces a noticeable hump to the frame of the handset. It’s not terrible, seriously, but it’s nice to find that there’s a cover over the lens to protect it – albeit, it opens up when the camera app is launched.







Interface and Functionality:

We won’t be getting into too much detail here, seeing that this is the same old Windows Phone 8 experience we’ve been exposed to. Being a Lumia branded device and all, it benefits over some other Windows Phone 8 devices from its rival, seeing that it’s home to all of Nokia’s branded apps – such as Nokia Music, Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, and much more. Overall, the look and functionality of the platform is intact, as the Start screen is home to all of its dynamic looking live tiles.

Upon looking through the listing of preloaded apps, there are a couple of new ones that we haven’t necessarily seen before. Rather than using the standard Windows Phone 8 camera app, this is stuffed with its own “Nokia Pro Camera” app, which as its name implies, provides us with an extensive set of camera controls that would appease even some professional photogs. Besides that, this doesn’t deviate from the Windows Phone 8 formula, which isn’t a bad thing, but when it’s a new year and a new device, we’re aching to see some changes naturally.

Under the hood, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is running a processor that some people would argue as being aged when compared to today’s quad-core. Even more shocking, it’s the same one that’s powering the Lumia 920, 928, and 925 – a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 processor. As much as some are going to be dismayed by this reality, this is again another perfect example in how hardware doesn’t matter, mainly because the phone runs smoothly with all of its processes and tasks. Something different, though, is the fact that it’s now packing double the RAM from before – 2GB instead of the previous 1GB.

On-screen Keyboard:

Well, this is hardly a surprise, especially when this is packing the same display and operating system as the Lumia 920. Yet again, the spacious display combined with its responsive performance helps to keep our fingers moving fluidly while typing things up with its on-screen keyboard. And if that’s not enough, we can always use its voice typing service to do all of our dirty work, which is pretty accurate.

Internet and Connectivity:

Combining its modest display and processor, with the help of good old 4G LTE connectivity, the Lumia 1020 doesn’t disappoint with the web browsing experience. From the swift page loads to its excellent navigation controls, the Lumia 1020 does well to provide us with all of the web browsing comforts we’d expect to find on any high-end smartphone.

From what its specs sheet tells us, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is coming to AT&T with 4G LTE connectivity. Now if you’re on another carrier, there’s no need to fret just yet because Elop left the door open with the possibility of it coming to other carriers once its exclusivity period with AT&T expires. Obviously, it’s outfitted with all the connectivity features that are commonplace nowadays – like aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and NFC. Unfortunately, wireless charging has been omitted with this one, and is only achieved through the aid of its optional Camera Grip accessory.



Camera:

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty folks! We’ve detailed the technology behind its 41-megapixel PureView camera, so now we’ll just briefly talk about the things that matter most with it – functionality and quality. With the former, we’re digging the new Nokia Pro Camera app that’s used by default when we long press on the shutter key. Whereas the stock Windows Phone 8 camera app is pretty barebones with its features set, the Nokia Pro Camera app blows it out of the water.

Seriously, hardened photographers who know their thing will undoubtedly appreciate what’s presented. From having the ability to select different modes, to more advanced functions like modifying exposure, ISO, shutter speed, and focus, there’s a lot of fun to be seen with it. When it comes to video, we’re finally amazed to find manual focus control with a smartphone – it’s super useful and provides for some interesting perspective shots.




It’s one thing seeing photo samples being shown off during a presentation, but it’s totally another when it comes to real-world results. Most of the Nokia reps were showing off images that were taken previously, which really showed off the insane detail quality of the camera, but we were still skeptical about it. So with that in mind, we snapped a few photos ourselves to find out. Now, when you snap a shot, it saves it as a 5-megapixel sized sample, and the original 38-megapixel snapshot.

Relying on the Nokia Pro Camera app to preview our images, we really can’t say that we’re blown by the results. Sure, we appreciate that it’s able to handle dynamic range well in the rough environment of an events hall, but details further in the background seemed hazed. In fact, we tried reading the words on someone’s press badge in the snapped photo, but it was just too soft and indistinct to visualize.

Naturally, we’re bummed by what we’re seeing, but we can’t pass judgment just yet – mainly because the units on hand aren’t final production ones. Therefore, we can still see tweaks between now and its release that would improve the final result. Plus, it would’ve been better to preview the images on a higher resolution PC monitor, as opposed to the tinier and saturated colors of the Lumia 1020’s display.









Nokia Camera Grip:

Being a photo centric smartphone and all, the Lumia 1020 by itself can probably outgun and outclass some point and shoot cameras – and heck, it looks like one too. However, if you intend on getting the best results, the optional Nokia Camera Grip features some useful additions that deepen the handset’s arsenal. For starters, this attachment modifies the smartphone’s design enough to make it look like a point and shoot. In fact, there’s a hump in the right side that would provide us with the necessary grip to hold it like a point and shoot. In addition, the shutter key on it is larger and more distinctive, and there’s also a tripod mount on the bottom. And finally, it doubles as a battery pack too, seeing that it’s outfitted with a 1,200 mAh battery to juice the handset while on the go.





Expectations:

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is in a pickle of a situation at the moment, mainly because of its higher than expected price point of $299.99 on-contract – that’s $200 more than the launch prices of its predecessors. No doubt, its 41-megapixel PureView camera might justify the higher cost this time around, but the more you look at the specs sheet, it’s quite clear that this is still a Nokia Lumia 920 at heart. Nokia is talking big about its camera and whatnot, which is rightfully so, but it’ll be up to consumers in the end to figure out if $300 is really worth the money. Heck, you can get some pretty decent point and shoots at around the $100 mark, when combined with the probably free cost of the Lumia 920 right now, it’s cheaper than forking over your money on this. Well, if the handset can really deliver unparalleled detail quality that can’t be matched, then it’ll really hit the mark in being a valiant offering that can stand with the current greats.